Who Said That?

Florida's quote of the day

| 4/30/2014

"I've had more telephone calls, correspondences, Facebook posts on this than anything else."

-- Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater

The Florida Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would allow microbreweries to sell their products in popular half-gallon "growler" containers in exchange for more restrictions on how much they can sell, new rules backed by major beer distributors.

SB 1714 wouldn't regulate any craft beer establishment selling fewer than 2,000 kegs a year. But microbreweries selling more than 2,000 kegs that exceed 20 percent of their sales in take-home consumption would have to sell their product to distributors, and then buy it back at marked up prices.

"It's a terrible bill because it prevents the little guy from growing," said Joey Redner, who founded Tampa's Cigar City Brewing. "We are putting caps on how big companies can get."

But the measure is expected to fall flat in the House, which killed a similar bill last month.